- Connor Hellebuyck won his Devils home debut as New Jersey beat the Oilers 4-3 in a shootout
- Jack Hughes scored twice in 45 seconds and added an assist
- Read below for how the Devils slowed Connor McDavid and how the shootout played out
Connor Hellebuyck picked up his first win in front of the Devils’ home crowd, and Jack Hughes made sure it was a loud night in Newark.
New Jersey beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in a shootout Tuesday at Prudential Center. Arseny Gritsyuk scored in the fourth round, and Hellebuyck stopped Kasperi Kapanen to end it. That makes three straight wins since the Devils acquired him from Winnipeg on Oct. 23, and it came in the home debut we previewed Monday.
Hughes was the difference in regulation. He scored twice in 45 seconds late in the second period to flip a 1-1 game into a 3-1 lead. The first was a one-timer from the right circle at 14:50. Fans chanted “USA! USA!” after it, a nod to his Olympic gold-medal overtime winner against Canada, with Hellebuyck in net for that team in Milan.
Here’s the first one:
The second came at 15:35 off a cross-crease pass from Connor Brown, and the puck went in off Hughes’ own skate. Brown had tied the game earlier on the power play against the team he spent two seasons with.
Edmonton didn’t go away. Evan Bouchard opened the scoring in the first period, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins cut it to 3-2 with a power-play goal on the same night he became the Oilers’ all-time games played leader. Leon Draisaitl tied it with a 5-on-3 one-timer a minute into the third.
McDavid set up that Draisaitl goal to stretch his NHL-record season-opening assist streak to 16 games. He was held to one shot on goal in 24:15 of ice time, with Nico Hischier shadowing him most of the night.
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe talked about the assignment for Hischier’s line:
“You got to be real responsible with the puck, good defensively. It could be a bit of a grind, but they did a good job.”
McDavid still scored in the shootout, but Gritsyuk and Jesper Bratt answered for New Jersey. Check out the finish:
Hellebuyck was happy with how the Devils played in front of him. He said the second period, when Edmonton managed only three shots, was “almost textbook.”
The Devils are 10-5-0 and 6-1-0 in their last seven. Edmonton is 11-2-3 and lost its first road game of the season after starting 7-0-1 away from home.
